August 4, 2012

Sick of logging into your social media account and seeing nothing but a bunch of baby pictures posted by your child-obsessed friends and family? Now, at long last, there's a permanent solution to the problem.

That solution comes in the form of a new plug-in for the Google Chrome web browser known as "Unbaby Me" which according to PCMag's Chloe Albanesius will flag photos of those incessant infants and tiresome tykes on an individual's Facebook News Feed and then replace them with images of cats, other animals, artwork, and so forth.

If this sounds like something that peaks your interest, CNET writer Emil Protalinski explains that the plug-in is extremely easy to set up. First, users need to go to the Chrome Web Store and click on the blue "Add to Chrome" button to install the app. Then, they simply have to refresh their Facebook News Feed in order for the app to switch out the baby pics with whatever surrogate is selected.

The creative force behind this undoubtedly soon-to-be immensely popular app is a copywriter named Chris Baker, who along with friends came up with Unbaby Me as a "side project," according to ABC's Joanna Stern. He said that they were inspired by the spread of baby photos on the popular social network, and ultimately decided that "something had to be done" to the dominance of the diapered.

"The offering has its limitations," Albanesius said. "Unbaby Me basically just searches your news feed for references to babies or terms that are commonly associated with them. The creators picked a few terms of their own - like so cute, look at these cheeks, birth, mommy, and so forth - but you can select Keywords of your own."

The ability to select specialized keywords means that the app can be used to block just about anything -- a feature which Slate writer Will Oremus calls "the most underrated and revolutionary aspect of the tool."

"You can set it up to block pictures of pretty much anything you don´t want to see in your newsfeed," he explained. "I have nothing against the occasional feline or toddler, but when I´m desk-bound on a sunny August day, the last thing I want to see are my friends´ sunset-streaked snapshots of the damn Chichen Itza. So I tried replacing the baby-related keywords with terms like 'vacation,' 'beach,' 'sights,' 'island,' and, for good measure, 'fun.' Then I changed the tag for the RSS feed from 'cats' to 'cubicles.' “¦ Zap! All of my friends´ summers are now as boring as mine."